An installation for fabricating a reinforced tire is known in which the carcass ply is made from a single continuous yarn that is laid radially back and forth between two bead wires of a tire blank.
The yarn, previously stored on a reel, is laid on the blank by a laying member including a head that is moved with reciprocating motion along a substantially circular path around the blank. The term “yarn” should be understood very generally, covering any linear element whether single or multifilament, a cord, a twist, or any equivalent assembly, and regardless of the (metal or other) material constituting the yarn, and regardless of the treatment to which it might be subjected, for example surface treatment for enhancing intimate bonding with rubber, or indeed rubberizing treatment surrounding said yarn in a layer of rubber so as to enable it to adhere directly on the tire blank.
The known method uses a stationary reel. The yarn is unreeled from the reel under the effect of the tension exerted by the yarn, depending on the yarn requirements of the laying member. In order to ensure that the yarn does not unreel too quickly from the reel, which would have the drawback of reducing the tension with which the yarn is laid, members are used that rub against the yarn and that oppose unreeling of the yarn from the reel.
However the yarn is generally coated in a layer of adhesive so the rubbing members lead to the layer of adhesive, being stripped from the yarn and that can run the risk of the installation becoming clogged.
A solution to that problem might consist in using a moving reel with its rotation being controlled to unwind a quantity of yarn as required for feeding the laying member. That would make it possible to omit using rubbing members. Nevertheless, given the reciprocating laying motion and the shape of the blank, the delivery rate required for feeding yarn to the laying member is variable. That makes it particularly complicated to control the speed of rotation of the reel.